Musing with Nina Karnikowski
Nina Karnikowski is a travel writer and sustainable advocate. Having worked as a travel writer for some of Australia’s most respected publications over the past decade, Nina is now on her greatest adventure yet: making her and her readers’ travels more conscious, and less harmful for the planet. The author of Make a Living Living, Be Successful Doing What You Love and Go Lightly, How to Travel Without Hurting the Planet, she is also passionate about helping people unearth their creativity and build successful, purpose-driven careers and lives doing what they love.
What is it for you to be a woman?
Being a woman, for me, is about freedom and expression. As modern women, we’re able to craft the kind of lives our grandmothers could have only dreamt about. I try to keep that privilege in mind every day, and I honour it by living a life that feels fearless and free. Taking off on regular adventures, building a work life I am proud of that makes me financially independent, and building strong, generous and open-hearted relationships.
What holds you back from expressing your femininity?
I don’t feel held back from that. But I am always trying to find balance between my masculine and feminine energies, and recognising the power that each of them hold. I also question our conditioning as women, how we’re often taught to look outside ourselves rather than inside ourselves like boys are, and how we’re taught to please from such a young age. So much time and energy is wasted in that, when we could be out there changing our broken world. The truth is that the power of the feminine is absolutely unstoppable, if only we can learn to harness it in the right way.
What qualities do you admire most in women? Why?
Curiosity, first and foremost. The most extraordinary women in my life are the ones who are constantly asking ‘what if?’ of the world, and then who get out there and put that ‘what if’ to the test. Our world need radical imagination right now, and curiosity is the bright spark that ignites that.
If you could share one practice that can empower and inspire our Muse community, what would it be?
A daily writing practice. I write almost every morning at sunrise, to return to myself when I feel lost, or to lose myself when I feel too found. To drop into the present moment, to empty my whirling brain so I can focus on what’s truly important, to reflect and resolve and remember. As Joan Didion once said, “I don’t know what I think until I write about it”, and I think that’s true for so many of us.
Follow Nina for more inspiration at ninakarnikowski.com and @travelswithnina